Israeli authorities have forced a Palestinian man to demolish his own house in East Jerusalem al-Quds as the occupying regime is continuing with its land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied Palestinian territories irrespective of international outcry.

The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported that Hussam al-Abbasi was forced to demolish his house, a third-floor apartment in a three-story residential building in Ra’s al-Amud neighborhood on Saturday morning.

It added that the demolition was carried out upon an order by the Israeli municipality of the city that claimed the building lacked a construction license, which was impossible to obtain from the Israeli regime.

Abbasi told Ma’an that he had been summoned by the municipality of the city and was ordered to demolish his own house or else the municipality would fine him for demolition costs.

He further said that he had chosen to demolish his house himself in a bid to minimize damage on two other apartments and other families living in the building. He said his 70-square-meter apartment was built a year ago.

Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds are regularly forced to demolish their own houses upon orders by the Israeli municipality of the city to avoid paying exorbitant demolition fees to the municipality.

Furthermore, Israeli authorities frequently demolish Palestinian buildings and structures in the so-called Area C, with Bedouin and herding communities being particularly vulnerable to that practice.

Area C, which is under full Israeli control, makes up more than 60 percent of the entire occupied West Bank. Eighty-eight percent of the area lies in the strategic Jordan Valley, which comprises a third of the West Bank.

Since 1967, the Israeli regime has been enforcing the draconian policy of demolishing the houses of Palestinians it deems to be behind fatal attacks against Israeli settlers. The practice, however, was temporarily halted from 2005 to 2014, with the exception of 2009, when scores of homes were sealed and razed in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.